Anna Anthropy, author of Rise of the Videogame Zinesters, answered questions from Jim Munroe of brokenpencil about her book, zine culture, and her site-specific game, Keep Me Occupied, at the Occupy Oakland rise-up festival.

“JM: What sparked your comparison between zines and indie games in your new book?

AA: It hit me when I thought about Gutenberg’s printing press and how important it was to the decentralization of religious authority in Europe. Printing made bibles in German possible, for sure, but it also made pamphlets possible. When I connected self-publishing of text to the self-publishing of videogames, it hit me just how important that is. The games industry is allowed to act as a gatekeeper to games creation because they alone can front the money required to put games on store shelves. But now we have both the means to create games ourselves and the means to distribute them easily — an important part of publishing that the shareware authors of the 1990s struggled with, though they came up with some clever solutions.”

“You’re in a shady, sleazy bar. Perfectly sleazy. Good sleazy. You feel just the right amount of sleazy.

Hoping that all the best games journalists do their best work drunk, you get that glass of white wine straight up, and head to the shadiest corner of the bar, looking for trouble.

Suddenly, she rises out of the darkness.”

Check out this interactive interview with Anna Anthropy, author of Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form

Gender tropes lurk behind the Xbox controller.. and Anna Anthropy is determined to bend them. The author of Rise of the Videogame Zinesters hopes to develop a gaming world that’s more gender-friendly for everyone.

“Being trans doesn’t make the fact that I’m a woman any less real, and obviously it’s often safer for trans women on the internet not to advertise the fact that they’re trans. Today, I’m totally out about being trans because I want other trans people to find me and feel safer in this games space.”

“Anthropy’s passion for video gaming and how it defines her identity–and is now becoming a reality in defining new generations–is what makes Zinesters all worthwhile. She’s so passionate in getting you motivated that she’s willing to dedicate two full pages listing subject after subject about what you (yes you) can create a game about.”

"This is serious philosophy, wrapped up in comp lit and game theory and who knows what else. . . . [Anthropy] contends that games might eventually become the highest, most sublime medium, and she makes a great case. Like, Scott McCloud great. . . . Rise of the Videogame Zinesters is the most important book about games yet written. . . . Irrespective of how you or I feel about Anthropy’s book and all it contends, it is the book the games industry needs."

"Really, you’re left with two choices, go and make a game right now or read Rise of the Videogame Zinesters and then make a game. Either is preferable, but I consider Anna’s book a great gateway into the world of indie development and how you can so easily become a part of it."

"As for what to make your game about, make it about anything and everything, Anthropy insists. Make it about yourself. Make it about your hopes, your failures or your cats; just make it about something. But more importantly, just make a game."

On her game Dys4ia: "It was a game about my experience being frustrated and feeling vulnerable, and not being able to have a conversation with my girlfriend without bursting into tears afterwards," Anthropy says. "And people keep telling me that they cried playing the game, they played the game more than once and cried every time. Absolutely that was the experience that I wanted to create."